Mike Gordon

Institutional and policy conditions for the development of social enterprise in South Yorkshire

Supervisors: Professor Harvey Armstrong, Dr Dave Valler (Town and Regional Planning), and Jude Robinson (South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme Directorate)

Since 1990, I have been a self-employed consultant in economic development, regeneration, and environmental planning. From 1993-2002, I was a course tutor for the Open University, and also taught part-time at Anglia Polytechnic University (1994-2000). From 1974-1989, I worked for five different local authorities (Birmingham, Newcastle upon Tyne, Hackney, Allerdale, and Basildon), from 1978 onwards in local economic development. I have a law degree, diplomas in town planning and accounting and finance, and an MA in local economic development from Middlesex University. I am a Chartered Town Planner and a Member of the Institution of Economic Development.

My PhD research is supported by both ESRC and the Objective 1 Programme Directorate for South Yorkshire and enables me to explore related topics to those of my MA dissertation, the subject of which was the contribution of the community co-operatives of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to the development of the social economy. Social enterprises (businesses which trade to achieve social purposes) form a topical and growing part of the wider social economy (the 'third sector', between the market and public sectors). My South Yorkshire research is intended to establish what works, and what is needed, to bring about the further development of social enterprise in the sub-region. Besides covering the policy and institutional context, and material on the social economy, social enterprise and community economic development, my literature review is likely to include relevant aspects of social capital, community development and capacity building, and governance. I am also attempting to construct a sample frame of existing social enterprises in South Yorkshire, so that I can undertake quantitative and qualitative fieldwork, using questionnaire survey, interview and case study techniques.

Email: m.j.gordon@sheffield.ac.uk